Chapter 18. Woof Woof

After Conn left, I packed my own small bedroll and walked a circle around the camp, just in case by some quirk of fate, the wolves had left a trail of bread crumbs or something, but all there was were trees, rocks and bushes, and I was no tracker.  And when I thought about it, wandering around the woods looking for them seemed pretty foolish sinceI'dey'd found me once and warned me to go home.  It stood to reason that all I needed to do was wait and they'd show up again. I ate a piece of meatroll and waited for something to happen, sort of expecting that it might be nightfall before anything happened.

As it turned out, I didn't have to wait that long. After only a couple of hours, as I was half heartedly trying to carve a bow out of a sapling,  man wearing a brown loincloth stepped out from behind a tree and shook his head as he stepped over.

"That's a bow?" he said dubiously, reaching out and inspecting the six foot long stick I'd been whittling at.  "If I were you, I'd try buying one, instead."

"Excuse me?" I said, sitting up.  "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for a friend, maybe one with four legs?" he replied shaking his head.

"Well, yeah" I said.

"Too bad.  You won't find him, and that's a good thing, because I don't care how big you are, he'd tear you to shreds."

"I'll take my chances" I said standing up for no good reason other than maybe to put this little guy in his place.  It didn't seem to work.

"Look, honey" he said into my chest, "You're like, Alcatian special forces or something, right?  Come to chase off the big bad wolf that's been eating up the locals?  I get it, even applaud the idea, but first off, he's more than a match for you, and second, chasing him down is my responsibility."

"And you are?" I asked.

"Name's Michael" he replied, and when I just stared at him, he added: "Sonny, the wolf you're looking for, is my brother."

I started to draw my sword then, but before I got it even halfway out of the scabbard, a young woman popped out from behind a tree with a very nice bow with an arrow notched and pointing right at me.

"That's Connie" my sister" Michael said, "and she's a little skittish, so it'd be nice if you left that sword in its scabbard."

"Your brother" I said tensely eyeing Connie and her bow, "is he the one who's been killing livestock and children?"

"Unfortunately, that sounds just like Sonny  He's not a picky eater."

Michael kept inspecting my deformed bow stick, and Connie stepped closer, seemingly relaxing a little although she kept the bow drawn.  Focusing on Michael, I tried to discretely keep track of Connie and her bow.  I'd play his game for awhile but if she didn't put that bow down soon, she was going to have to use it. Id never taken an arrow before, but shed only get one shot at taking me out.

"I don't suppose you could get your brother to become a vegetarian?" I asked Michael.

He laughed.

"Not much chance of that" he said, "he doesn't much listen to me."

Connie was now within ten paces, but Michael dropped the stick and his smile disappeared as I spoke.

"Then I guess I'll give it a try" I said.

"I can't allow that" Michael said.

At that moment, a large wolf jumped out of the bush heading for us, and I reacted, backhanding Michael with my left hand and drawing my sword with my right.

I felt the arrow pierce my thigh, but the wolf seemed more of a threat, only, as I moved towards him Connie screamed "No."

I was about to slice the wolf's head off, which seemed easy enough since he was standing there shaking like he was having a fit, but at that moment,  my vision got blurry, and even as the wolf started to contort into man shape, I started to lose control of my body.

I hit the ground hard and lay there, unable to move, except for small tremors in my hands and legs.

"Meet Fredo, my other brother" I heard Michael say from behind me. "

They turned me over on my back, retrieved the poisoned arrow, and Michael took advantage of my paralysis to run his hands over my body while Connie took a hot stick from the fire and thrust it into the wound on my leg.

"You'll live," Michael said, "and probably be walking about in a day or three."

***

Michael's  prediction wasn't right, because when I woke up that night, id already gained quite a bit of control over my body, despite still feeling sluggish and aching all over.  I probably would have stayed unconscious for a awhile longer though, if it hadn't been for Connie.  The girl was singing, softly but off key, some sort of lullaby and sitting on her knees, staring into the fire. 

I waited a few moments until I thought I could manage it, and then sat up, snagging the girl by the throat and pinning her to the ground, cutting off her air as I looked around.  When I was satisfied her brothers weren't near, I told her not to cry out, and started to interrogate the little bitch who'd shot me and then stuck a hot stick in the wound.

She whined a lot, and struggled more like a full grown man than a teenaged girl, but she stopped trying to change when I squeezed her throat and told her i'd rip her head of her shoulders if she didn't, after which she started talking.

Michael and Fredo, it seemed, were hunting Sonny  themselves, and she swore they meant me no harm.  I was pissed, literally, thanks to that poisoned arrow, as well as her little hot poker trick, but she was right that they could have killed me and didn't.

I'm not going to say we became friends, but by the time she finished telling me about her pack and how they'd exiled Sonny for killing humans in the first place, I no longer wanted to hurt her.  She was a child, and from what she was saying, her pack wasn't the problem.  It was Sonny.

Which is why, when Michael came back to camp, Connie and I were sitting by the fire.  I'd threatened to put a leash on her, but she promised me she'd stay like a good little puppy if I didn't hurt her AND I promised to talk to Michael when he got back.

Michael and Fredo returned just before dark, stark naked and covered in blood. Michael was unhurt, but Fredo had what a nasty  looked like over week old wounds all over his neck, chest and back.

Connie jumped up to see Fredo while Michael, looking grim and tired, described how he'd found Fredo in wolf form, nearly dead and smelling of Sonny.  By the time he forced Fredol to change, Sonnywas long gone.

Whatever else  Sonny might be, he'd nearly killed his brother, and, as I listened to them talk, it seemed pretty clear to me that Michael felt he couldn't take Sonny by himself. I let them talk for awhile, and when Fredo was finally resting, asked Michael what he had planned next.

He looked pained as he answered me.

"Sonny's mad, as in crazy.  I was hoping I together could take him out, but it'll be a week at least until Fredo can change again.  I'm not going after him alone."

"But you could find him?" I asked, pointedly.

Michael  just looked at me, but Connie spoke up.

"He can, and if he won't, I will" she said to me before looking at Michael.

"He needs to be put down, Michael.  You told me that.  And you won't be alone.  I'll help, and Fiona ..."  Connie looked over at me and rubbed her throat, "big brother, she may not be one of us, but she's more than just a human, she's like a ...."

I jumped in  because I just couldn't bear being called a freak.  I'm used to it, and mostly I ignore it, but at that moment, I just didn't want to hear the word come out of Connie's mouth.

"What's it going to be, Michael?" I asked,  "Are you going to let your baby sister and some broad take care of your problems, or are you going to man up?"

Michael looked at me like he was about to spit blood for a second or two and then shrugged.

"Fine.  But you.." he said, pointing at Connie," are going to stay and watch Fredo."